Chicago White Sox starter Michael Kopech paced behind the mound as David Villar circled the bases after hitting the San Francisco Giants’ fourth home run of the fifth inning.
Talk about spoiling a party.
The Giants hit seven homers in all and thumped the Sox 12-3 to put a damper on Monday’s home opener in front of 34,784 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“The first inning, (Kopech) threw the ball really well, the velocity was high and he looked really good,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “They made some adjustments on him. Whatever that was, we’ve got to get back to the video and see what we’ve got and see what we see.
“We’re going to flush this one. This is one of 162. We’ve got to flush it, day off (Tuesday) and come ready to play on Wednesday.”
The seven home runs allowed are tied for the second-most in club history, one shy of the record eight the New York Yankees hit on July 31, 2007.
Five of the homers came against Kopech and two off José Ruiz — including a grand slam by Villar in the ninth.
Kopech allowed seven runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and three walks in 4⅔ innings.
“For a starter sample size, it’s tough to take a hit like that, especially the home opener when that feels pretty important to the fans,” Kopech said. “But we are going to put it behind us and just keep working.”
The five homers allowed are a career high for Kopech and matched the most by a Sox pitcher in a game, most recently by Reynaldo López against the Toronto Blue Jays on July 27, 2018. That’s also the last time a Sox pitcher allowed four homers in one inning.
“The fact they were on everything, they saw something,” Kopech said. “Whether it was a tip or just me presenting pitches differently, they put good swings on it and it showed.”
Kopech had a nice rhythm in a scoreless first inning that included two strikeouts. He went to a full count to Joc Pederson to begin the second and allowed a homer on a 96.8 mph fastball, according to MLB Statcast.
“Pederson had a good at-bat,” Kopech said. “I can’t leave that pitch there.”
Pederson would have had a second homer, but Luis Robert Jr. jumped at the wall and robbed him in the third.
Kopech got ahead of Michael Conforto 0-2 with one out in the fifth, but the right fielder lined the next pitch — a 93.5 mph fastball — over the wall in right-center to give the Giants a 4-0 lead. Two pitches later, Thairo Estrada hit a slider to left for a home run.
The Giants again hit back-to-back homers later in the inning with Mike Yastrzemski homering on an 0-1 curveball and Villar on a 2-2 fastball.
Kopech exited after walking the next batter to wrap up his first start of the season. The right-hander said a positive was his changeup is “better than it has ever been.”
“I have a fourth pitch that I’m comfortable throwing,” Kopech said. “Unfortunately the three I’ve always been comfortable throwing got hit pretty hard.”
Grifol said Kopech was coming off a “good” spring training.
“Everything was trending in the right direction,” Grifol said. “A loss is tough, they made the adjustments on him today. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board, that’s it. He’ll start again in five days.”
That’s the mindset Kopech is taking.
“We have a structured five-day routine as starters, and fortunately that’s the time to focus on our work and get ready for the next start, put this one behind me,” Kopech said. “Obviously from this one there’s some stuff I need to work on before the next one.
“For the most part, that’s not pitch-wise, that’s more of a presentation of the pitches. That can be worked on in the bullpen and just move forward and move on.”
That applies to the Sox in general.
“Opening day is an important day for everyone, for us to come out and put (on) a good showing, but it didn’t happen that way,” Grifol said. “It’s one game out of 162. I’ll say it over and over again, whether we win or lose, we’ve got to flush this game and get back to playing baseball on Wednesday.
“And that’s just basically how you navigate a major-league season. You can’t think about when you’re up (or) when you’re down too much. You’ve got to have a short-term memory.”
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